Birmingham City can easily blast another ‘£20m’ in January as Knighthead’s ‘£64m’ budget explained

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Birmingham City have built a solid Championship side this summer and EFL Analysis can exclusively reveal the Blues’ could spend even more in the January window.

Chris Davies has had £12.4million worth of players arrive since their promotion as champions of League One last term, including an exciting homecoming for Demarai Gray and the signings of Premier League wingers Patrick Roberts and Tommy Doyle.

Many teams in the Championship would jump at the opportunity to sign the players in Birmingham’s best XI and even beyond. However, some Blues fans have warned there are a few areas of the pitch they are light in, particularly star midfielder Tomoki Iwata’s position, leaving them to ask why reinforcements weren’t brought in.

However, based on what EFL Analysis’ financial expert Adam Williams has learnt about the B9 club’s finances, Bluenoses don’t need to worry about the club’s ability to invest where necessary in the January window.

• READ MORE: Birmingham City fans have a surprise highlight of the last 12 months, it’s not promotion

Why Birmingham City could spend £20m in the January transfer window

EFL Analysis’ Williams can exclusively reveal if Birmingham achieve the kind of revenues that they are projecting in 2025, then they will have the resources to spend in January next year. The Blues are looking at a turnover of £50m, which is going to be one of if not the highest in the Championship besides the clubs who are raking it in from parachute payments.

That’s £50m they can spend on wages, transfer fees and other expenses before they even need to consider PSR. Even then, they have almost another £14m of headroom per year within the current rules, so that effectively gives them a working budget of £64m every year, if the owners are willing to max it out and underwrite the losses that come with that. In fact, it’s going to be higher than that when you add back allowable expenditure on the academy and infrastructure.

He said: “Personally I was surprised not to see them spend a little bit more in the summer window, even accounting for their huge expenditure last season. That of course will have massively increased the wage bill too, but I think it will still be very manageable by Championship standards.

“They lost £14m in 2023/24, which is the last financial year on record. That was with revenue of £30m and a wage bill of £36m. So if you add £20m of revenue to that, they might just about swing to an operating profit after wages and amortisation. So yes, I don’t think there’s anything stopping them from spending £10-20m in January if the owners underwrite that kind of investment.”

Birmingham’s spending ranks lower than fellow promotion winners Wrexham.

How does Birmingham City’s spending in the summer transfer window rank in the Championship?

Tom Brady’s Blues sit ninth in the spending table after the conclusion of the 2025/26 summer transfer window.

Ipswich Town splashed the most cash following their relegation from the Premier League and fellow parachute payment club Southampton weren’t far behind.

Championship newbies Wrexham dropped £32.7m, signing Coventry City captain Ben Sheaf and Ipswich Town’s Nathan Broadhead for £6.5m and up to £10m respectively.

Birmingham spent £400,000 more than established second tier club Swansea City, £1million behind neighbours West Bromwich Albion.